title: The use of the Hirsch index in benchmarking hepatic surgery research.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  The Hirsch index (h-index) is recognized as an effective way to summarize an individual's scientific research output. However, a benchmark for evaluating surgeon scientists in the field of hepatic surgery is still not available.
  
  
  METHODS
  A total of 3,251 authors who published between 1949 and 2011 were identified using the Scopus identification number. The h-index, the total number of cited document, the total number of citations, and the scientific age were calculated for each author using both Scopus and Google Scholar.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The median h-index was 6 and the median scientific age, assessed with Google Scholar, was 19 years. The numbers of cited documents, numbers of citations, and h-indexes obtained from Scopus and Google Scholar showed good correlation with one another; however, the results from the 2 databases were modified in different ways by scientific age. By plotting scientific age against h-index percentiles an h-index growth chart for both Scopus database and Google Scholar was provided.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  This analysis provides a first benchmark to assess surgeon scientists' productivity in the field of liver surgery.
authors.affiliation: Department of Medical and Surgical Sciences - DIMEC, Alma Mater Studiorum, University of Bologna, S.Orsola - Malpighi Hospital, Via Massarenti 9, Bologna 40138, Italy. Electronic address: aleqko@libero.it.
authors.forename: Alessandro
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Cucchetti
authors.forename: Federico
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Mazzotti
authors.forename: Sara
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Pellegrini
authors.forename: Matteo
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Cescon
authors.forename: Lorenzo
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Maroni
authors.forename: Giorgio
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Ercolani
authors.forename: Antonio Daniele
authors.initials: AD
authors.lastname: Pinna
mesh_terms: D015706:Bibliometrics; D016206:Databases, Bibliographic / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006498:Hepatectomy; D006801:Humans; D020407:Internet; D016031:Liver Transplantation; D011643:Publishing / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*
keywords: Academic research; Bibliometric measures; H-index; Hepatic surgery; Surgical therapy